IN 1969, when Neil Armstrong made his giant leap for mankind by taking small steps on the moon, the world looked on in disbelief.

Thirty-four years on, the world has become blase about space travel.

Only when something goes disastrously wrong are we made to fully appreciate the extraordinary achievements of human beings who risk their lives in the name of science.

It is the mind-boggling statistics which bring it home: Columbia was travelling at 17,500mph as it approached re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere, slowing to 12,500mph at the point of explosion at about 207,000ft.

We have come to take for granted the courage of the men and women who are prepared to travel at such incredible speeds and heights to push back the boundaries of human endeavour.

A space shuttle mission hardly warrants a news bulletin these days - unless there is a catastrophe.

"There are a lot of different things we do during life that could potentially harm us and I choose not to stop doing those things," said Columbia crew member Laurel Clark, discussing her eight-year-old son's concerns for her safety before her ill-fated adventure.

The human race needs people with that kind of pioneering spirit. Like the rest of the crew, Laurel Clark knew the risks of sitting in a rocket zooming through space at 17,500mph.

And yet it is time to take stock; to ensure that the lives of the great space pioneers are not also being taken for granted by those who send them on their missions of discovery.

Laurel Clark, Kalpana Chawla, Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, Ilan Ramon, and David Brown were sent into space aboard a battered workhorse of a craft built more than 20 years ago.

Even within Nasa, doubts had been expressed about the ability of the ageing fleet of shuttles to keep withstanding the rigours of bursting in and out of the Earth's atmosphere.

The pioneering spirit of the human race will never die. But the Columbia disaster must be the impetus for scientists and their political backers to find newer, safer ways to explore space.